Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Crescent Jupiter with the Great Red Spot

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This image of a crescent Jupiter and the iconic Great Red Spot was created by a citizen scientist (Roman Tkachenko) using data from Juno's JunoCam instrument. You can also see a series of storms shaped like white ovals, known informally as the ‘string of pearls.’ Below the Great Red Spot a reddish long-lived storm known as Oval BA is visible.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Juno’s Close Look at a Little Red Spot

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The JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft snapped this shot of Jupiter’s northern latitudes on Dec. 11, 2016 at 8:47 a.m. PST (11:47 a.m. EST), as the spacecraft performed a close flyby of the gas giant planet. The spacecraft was at an altitude of 10,300 miles (16,600 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Jovian 'Antarctica'

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Cyclones swirl around the south pole, and white oval storms can be seen near the limb -- the apparent edge of the planet -- in this image of Jupiter’s south polar region taken by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The image was acquired on February 2, 2017, at 5:52 a.m. PST (8:52 a.m. EST) from an altitude of 47,600 miles (76,600 kilometers) above Jupiter’s swirling cloud deck.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Juno Captures Jupiter Cloudscape in High Resolution

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This close-up view of Jupiter captures the turbulent region just west of the Great Red Spot in the South Equatorial Belt, with resolution better than any previous pictures from Earth or other spacecraft.

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Merc14 21,878

Merc14 21,878

A little off-topic but you guys prompted me to take a look at the images Voyager and Gallileo sent back and ran into a "what-if" story about the decision to send Voyager 1 to Titan, vice Pluto and how that decision, in a roundabout way, may have brought about the New Horizons program as per Alan Stern. http://astronomy.com/year-of-pluto/2015/06/why-didnt-voyager-visit-pluto (this story is from a month before NH arrived at Pluto)

“I’m very glad that they chose not to go to Pluto in 1986,” Stern says. “We’ll do a better job at Pluto with modern instruments than they would have, and they did a much better job at Saturn by not going to Pluto — they got to explore Titan up close. For our team, it also worked out very well because there would have been no need to do New Horizons.”

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Dark Spot and Jovian ‘Galaxy’

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This enhanced-color image of a mysterious dark spot on Jupiter seems to reveal a Jovian “galaxy” of swirling storms.

Juno acquired this JunoCam image on Feb. 2, 2017, at 5:13 a.m. PDT (8:13 a.m. EDT), at an altitude of 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) above the giant planet’s cloud tops. This publicly selected target was simply titled “Dark Spot.” In ground-based images it was difficult to tell that it is a dark storm.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

When Jovian Light and Dark Collide

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This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, highlights a feature on Jupiter where multiple atmospheric conditions appear to collide.

This publicly selected target is called “STB Spectre.” The ghostly bluish streak across the right half of the image is a long-lived storm, one of the few structures perceptible in these whitened latitudes where the south temperate belt of Jupiter would normally be. The egg-shaped spot on the lower left is where incoming small dark spots make a hairpin turn.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

The Edge of Jupiter

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This enhanced color Jupiter image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, showcases several interesting features on the apparent edge (limb) of the planet.

Prior to Juno’s fifth flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops, members of the public voted on which targets JunoCam should image. This picture captures not only a fascinating variety of textures in Jupiter’s atmosphere, it also features three specific points of interest: “String of Pearls,” “Between the Pearls,” and “An Interesting Band Point.” Also visible is what’s known as the STB Spectre, a feature in Jupiter’s South Temperate Belt where multiple atmospheric conditions appear to collide.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Approaching Jupiter

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This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s south pole was created by citizen scientist Gabriel Fiset using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Oval storms dot the cloudscape. Approaching the pole, the organized turbulence of Jupiter’s belts and zones transitions into clusters of unorganized filamentary structures, streams of air that resemble giant tangled strings.

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Merc14 21,878

Merc14 21,878

Well those images are just running over with pareidolia with me; I see angels, dancing fairies and elves and demons in those clouds.

The images really make me wish that we were able to visit Jupiter and dive into it's cloudy vistas...what must they look like from up close?

I would think that the closer you got the less distinct these structures would be considering the size of Jupiter. Some of those swirls and circles are nearly as big as our planet, check it out below but I do agree it would be awesome to fly along the surface on that swirling atmosphere.:

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Orphalesion 3,043

Orphalesion 3,043

I would think that the closer you got the less distinct these structures would be considering the size of Jupiter. Some of those swirls and circles are nearly as big as our planet, check it out below but I do agree it would be awesome to fly along the surface on that swirling atmosphere.:

Well, yeah. I know that.

I still think it would be awesome to see Jupiter's skies up close, independent of that.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Jupiter’s Little Red Spot

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This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s cloud tops was processed by citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The image highlights a massive counterclockwise rotating storm that appears as a white oval in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Jupiter’s Clouds of Many Colors

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NASA’s Juno spacecraft was racing away from Jupiter following its seventh close pass of the planet when JunoCam snapped this image on May 19, 2017, from about 29,100 miles (46,900 kilometers) above the cloud tops. The spacecraft was over 65.9 degrees south latitude, with a lovely view of the south polar region of the planet.

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

Waspie_Dwarf 12,086

The ‘Face’ of Jupiter

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JunoCam images aren’t just for art and science – sometimes they are processed to bring a chuckle. This image, processed by citizen scientist Jason Major, is titled “Jovey McJupiterface.” By rotating the image 180 degrees and orienting it from south up, two white oval storms turn into eyeballs, and the “face” of Jupiter is revealed.